Gov. DeSantis disses construction from ‘the ’70s and ’80s’

Ron DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis is offering commentary on Florida’s housing stock in the wake of the most destructive hurricane of his tenure.

And the Governor believes that even though new construction fared the best, some older construction fared better than others with the destructive force of Hurricane Ian.

“I’ve been saying this, but I think it is true, that some of the newer construction, I think did much better than people probably thought,” DeSantis said in Cape Coral Wednesday, at a roundtable discussion.

DeSantis pivoted from there to a discussion of how age didn’t necessarily translate into how buildings fared during the storm.

“And it’s interesting, because I’ve been saying that the older construction didn’t necessarily fare (well),” DeSantis said.

“But I was talking to folks and they did make a good point,” DeSantis continued. “You know, sometimes the stuff built in like the ’40s and ’50s did better than the stuff built in the ’70s and ’80s.”

The issues, DeSantis added, were both with construction in the state and beyond, an interesting point to make about much of the buildout during the Sunbelt’s expansion.

“There was definitely a period where some of the structures that were going up, and not just in Florida but across the country, were maybe not built for the long haul,” DeSantis explained.

He then pivoted back from criticism of 20th century architecture, reaffirming his stance that “some of the updated building (code construction) performed better than anybody thought it would.”

Whether the construction is from the 20th century or the 21st, the impact for homeowners and the state’s insurance market is considerable. The Office of Insurance Regulation reports nearly $5 billion of catastrophe claims at this writing Wednesday afternoon, a number that grows with each update.